Fight your Manitoba traffic ticket

No. MPI states that if you are caught speeding by a photo enforcement camera, your driver’s licence and insurance premiums are not affected. The fine still stands, but the Driver Safety Rating consequence that drives most of this page does not apply. If that is what you are holding, say so when you call and we will tell you straight away whether it is worth our involvement.

From the base level up, one level for each year of safe driving. Lower down it moves faster: MPI gives the example of a driver with an active licence at level −20 moving up seven levels for one clean year. In most cases your licence has to be active for 335 days of the 12-month assessment period to move up at all.

It moves you down the same scale. Each at-fault claim in the past year lowers your Driver Safety Rating by five levels. For claims of $5,000 or less you may be able to “buy back” the claim if you were at least 50 per cent at fault, which stops it affecting your rating — though it still appears on your driver abstract. That is a conversation with your MPI adjuster, not with us.

Often not — but do not wait, because the window is short. A default conviction adds $100 to the fine (except for parking offences), and while that is unpaid you may not be able to get or renew a driver’s licence or a vehicle registration; unpaid amounts can also be sent for third-party collection. Once a default conviction is entered you have 30 days from being given the Notice of Default Conviction to apply to a justice to set it aside. The notice counts as received seven days after it is mailed, so the clock may already be running. A justice can set the conviction aside where, through no fault of yours, you did not receive the ticket or the notice, or where exceptional circumstances stopped you dealing with it — an extended absence from Manitoba or a serious medical condition, for example. Past 30 days you can still apply, but you have to ask for an extension of time first. There is an application fee, and it is refunded if the conviction is set aside.

Not necessarily. The 15-to-45-day window is the general rule for provincial offences. Municipal offences, and parking offences under The Public Works Act or The Provincial Parks Act, run 30 to 60 days from the day the ticket is signed, and offences under a First Nation by-law run 30 to 90. The dates printed on your own copy are what governs — send us a photo and we will review the offence and confirm which period applies.

Not if we are on the file. Your matter is heard at the court centre closest to where the offence happened, so a ticket written near Thompson is heard in Thompson even if you live in Winnipeg. We appear there for you. The exception is where a justice orders you to attend personally, and we will tell you well before the date if that looks likely.